‘Something which emits beams of light; a beacon’; an agent noun containing OSc beim(e), beame, bayme ‘beam, ray of light’, probably referring to some kind of warning beacon prior to the one erected there in 1621 (RPC xii, 535–6). In modern Scots a beamer is a red face (from embarrassment) (SND).

The second element of the 1630-form (-skyrr) suggests Sc skerry (discussed in Elements Glossary under skelly).

This rock provides one of the main supports for the new Forth Road Bridge (autumn 2012).

According to OS Name Book 75, 4a, this is ‘a small rocky island in the Firth of Forth, on which is a stone beacon 27 feet in height and 13 in diameter, as a protection to vessels at high water, when the island is covered’.

Note also Craig Murmur, slightly to the north of Beamer, on SGF (1828) at NT119813, now on reclaimed land, so called ‘because of the noise of the sea beating against it’ according to OS Name Book 75, 4 (1853 × 1856).